Beaverdale and other Kits

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Moley

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It's funny how tastes change, I would say that until I reached 40 I only ever drank commercial white wines, mostly German (good stuff, not the cheap muck) and could never drink commercial reds. About 10 years ago, in-laws were coming to us for Christmas, Father-in-law is a red wine drinker, Mrs. Mole joined one of the Laithwaite's clubs and bought some decent reds. Having paid for them, I was damned well going to try them, even if I knew I wouldn't like them. To my surprise, I did like them, and embarked upon a fairly expensive voyage of discovery. Thankfully, over time I started to develop a taste for cheaper, rougher reds, and now almost never drink commercial whites.

For home winemaking I'm perfectly happy with Wurzels and assorted juice wines at around 45p a bottle, together with many fruit and vegetable wines for even less (many ingredients being free), but I don't seem to manage any big reds.

Now come on, I've seen a lot of postings about wine kits but I have absolutely never brewed one. I mean, those Beaverdale's and similar, you're looking at forty quid for a 30 bottle kit, that's a lot of dosh to front up. I know that works out around £1.30 a bottle for Riojas, Cabernets or Merlots but I've never tasted any kit wines. How good are they? Are they worth it?
 
Oooh, I shall be no help whatsoever, but am very interested in the reply!!
 
I agree the beaverdale kits are better than mid range shop brought wines. Although ive honestly never tried one of the red kits, im assuming there just as good.
 
Hmm, sounds like I need to collect up some bottles and get another fermenting bin... :whistle:
 
I am a hardened red wine drinker - Laithwaites was one of my main suppliers good solid full bodied reds are my favourite. I too have struggled to find a good red home made. I purchased the Beaverdale 1 gallon Shiraz Kit to test out recently . Am at the degassing stage with it, the alcohol content is a little low for my red tates - approx 11.9% I prefer closer to 15% but I did not want to alter it for first testing.
It took 3.5 weeks to ferment out - its quite reasonable first taste and I think this will improve significantly with ageing, so I will now take the plunge and buy a 5 gallon kit.

hope that helps !
 
The commercial Riojas I usually buy are around the 16 quid a bottle mark, and they are damned good The Beaverdale Rioja kit produces a wine that I would say is probably around 60-70% as good. I would certainly bet that if I applied the same stringent attention to detail to making a wine kit as I do to making my all grain beer I could improve on that . . . but It would never reach 100%

Looking at things like the Nebbiolos and the Chianti Classicos, you see the same sort of Pattern.

Chris Hogg at Hamstead Homebrew import their own varietal grape concentrates and make up wine kits which are significantly cheaper than the Beaverdale ones . . . and the Château Neuf du Pape one is incredibly close the the original . . .
 
Aleman said:
Chris Hogg at Hamstead Homebrew import their own varietal grape concentrates and make up wine kits which are significantly cheaper than the Beaverdale ones . . . and the Château Neuf du Pape one is incredibly close the the original . . .


Hi Aleman

does he have these on his website? I had a look and couldn't find anything but I don't know which are commercial brands and which is maybe his own?

Or, I may just be daft and missing it!! ;)
 
Thanks :thumb:

May try a Beaverdale first as I can get them locally for less money ( after P&P), but good to know
 
£37.50 in my LHBS which doesn't seem too bad... His grain, beer yeast etc is daft ******* prices mind!!!
 
Aleman said:
The commercial Riojas I usually buy are around the 16 quid a bottle mark, and they are damned good The Beaverdale Rioja kit produces a wine that I would say is probably around 60-70% as good.
So does that mean they are as good as a £9.99 bottle? :wha:

If we buy commercial wines they are generally in the £4-6 range unless there's a special occasion. I've got to visit my LHBS tomorrow so I may have to see what their prices are like, maybe try a couple of 6-bottle kits, although I don't generally like to faff around with single gallons and that does drive the unit cost up.

Thanks for the comments so far, please keep'em coming :thumb:
 
Moley said:
So does that mean they are as good as a £9.99 bottle? :wha:

I was hoping the same thing, and also buy wines around the £5 mark - if I can get something as good as them for under £1.50 then its all good. :thumb: If they are up near £10 wines then all the better!!

Think I will try a gallon one first despite the extra unit cost.

I seem to have hijacked your thread somewhat from the start... :oops: I shall now get back in my box, or at least go and get a beer soon- it's surely the weekend :drink:
 
hawkinspm said:
I seem to have hijacked your thread somewhat from the start... :oops:
Hey, don't worry about that, it's all been relevant :thumb:

hawkinspm said:
I shall now get back in my box, or at least go and get a beer soon- it's surely the weekend :drink:
Close enough, at least there's a ‘Y’ in the day, just got home myself and helping with dinner so I think I will join you :cheers:
I always cook with wine ...... sometimes I even put it in the food.
(That quote sounds like it should have been Floyd but I think it was WC Fields).
 
hawkinspm said:
Aleman said:
Chris Hogg at Hamstead Homebrew import their own varietal grape concentrates and make up wine kits which are significantly cheaper than the Beaverdale ones . . . and the Château Neuf du Pape one is incredibly close the the original . . .
If you go on the hamstead homebrew website go into the catalogue then scroll down to the Hamstead brewing centre 10 day sugar inclusive wines
I can personally vouch for these kits ive done numerous of them never had any problems with them so simple virtually idiot proof

Hi Aleman

does he have these on his website? I had a look and couldn't find anything but I don't know which are commercial brands and which is maybe his own?

Or, I may just be daft and missing it!! ;)
 
Hi Moley
I love red wines and have made several kits. The California Connoisseur kits are good, probably equal to Beaverdale but they are not a match for good £5 to £10 bottles (not that I ever buy £10 bottles). Having said that I have not yet aged any kits beyond a few months so they may improve quite a bit. The Kenridge Classic kits are meant to be better but the few I have tried didn't seem to be any better to me. I tend to use the kit wines for day to day drinking and buy a nice bottle for special occasions. One thing I would say though is don't even bother to buy a kit white, your Wurzels is just as good.

Cheers
Alibro
 
Thanks Alibro :cheers:

I went down my cellar with a drinking straw earlier this evening for a few little testers and my Damson (started September) is shaping up nicely for a medium-bodied red, probably needs another 3 or 4 months. My Elderberry & Blackcurrant (started last March) has smoothed out beautifully and is good ‘big red’ so I might bottle that at the weekend and pick loads later in the year. Even so, I will have a look at prices in my LHBS tomorrow afternoon but if they are acceptable I think I might be tempted to try a Cabernet and a Rioja.

I wouldn't even contemplate trying a kit white, Mrs. Mole bought a couple of commercial whites recently, IIRC they were a Semillon Chardonnay and a Pinot Grigio half-priced from £8 down to £4, and in all honesty I much prefer a 45p Wurzel's.
 
Alibro said:
One thing I would say though is don't even bother to buy a kit white, your Wurzels is just as good.

What on earth was I thinking :eek: Wurzels Orange and Apple are better than kits and like you say just as good or better than a shop bought white. :thumb:

Cheers
Alibro

PS I was thinking of having a wee sample of my Blackberry/Elderberry myself soon. My Plum wine and Pear wine both smelt so awful last time I checked, I decided to leave them for another few months before tasting. I'm not sure where I went wrong with them (if at all). The Plum smelt pretty bad from the off but the pear was smelling lovely for the first couple of days, then turned a nasty smell which makes me worry it might never be good. Time will tell.
 
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